Software-defined networking (SDN) is a typical network structure. In the SDN, forwarding and control of a network device are separated, to form a forwarding plane and a control plane that are mutually independent. However, a network user, a network application, and the like are on an application plane. For a specific architecture of the SDN, reference may be made to FIG. 1. The application plane interacts with the control plane, and the control plane interacts with the forwarding plane.
As technologies develop, it is expected that network resources and network behavior can be flexibly controlled in the SDN based on a service requirement and characteristics of the planes in the SDN. For example, the application plane may send a service requirement to the control plane, and the control plane determines, based on content carried in the received service requirement, a control requirement for specifically implementing the service requirement in the SDN. It can be understood that the service requirement herein is an abstract description of a network requirement, for example, connectivity, bandwidth, and a service deployment lifecycle, so that the application plane does not need to describe, to the control plane, how to implement these requirements on a network.
It can be learned that how to convert a service requirement into a control requirement between the application plane and the control plane in the SDN is an urgent technical problem to be resolved currently.